Hatem Bazian's BDS feta fail at Trader Joes

Berkeley Peace and Justice Commissioner Hatem Bazian has issued a call-out on his Facebook page to boycott Trader Joe's for daring to stock Israeli feta cheese.

Hatem writes 
"Trader Joe’s is having Israeli Feta on its shelves! One more reason to stop shopping at the store. "

Hatem has tagged a short list of friends and colleagues to help promote the boycott of the beloved Trader Joes  grocery chain.

Hatem may not remember the 2009 BDS action against Trader Joes.  Trader Joes refused to be bullied and promoted the products with floor to ceiling displays.  Consumers followed with a "buycott' that ultimately lead to Israeli products sold out from stores coast to coast.   In their zeal to be supportive,  people bought cases of Israeli couscous. They began asking  "what is this small grain and what do I do with it?"  Shortly after, recipes began appearing in the blogsphere.

It was, as they say, a BDS fail of epic proportion, and a triumph of community led-grassroots activism.

The BDS cru retreated rapidly, sipping their kombucha and plaintively whimpering for their moms.

Since 2009, Trader Joes has added many more Israeli products to their shelves.

Hatem's little Facebook post may have sparked another  "run" on Trader Joes.  As of now, there are over 800 comments, on his post, with the vast majority supportive of Israel and Israeli feta. 

Hatem, don't you know this by now?   Never, ever get between a Jew and their food.

And as of today, there is no Israeli feta left in stock in the area.  A new shipment is expected next week.  Thanks Hatem, for another BDS fail  feta accompli.

Berkeley's mayor Jesse Arreguin opposed to appointment of Hatem Bazian to Local Commission

Berkeley's mayor Jesse Arreguin has publicly expressed his opposition to the appointment of Hatem Bazian to the city's Peace and Justice Commission, and has expressed his frustration about his inability to prevent it.

From the J Weekly, the Jewish News of Northern California:
Berkeley mayor objects to appointment of Bazian to city commission

Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin is not pleased with the appointment of controversial UC Berkeley lecturer Hatem Bazian to the city’s Peace and Justice Commission, saying Bazian is not qualified to serve as a public official because of his “anti-Semitic statements and actions.”

Bazian, a lecturer at UC Berkeley and the co-founder of American Muslims for Palestine  has called for an intifada in America, and has spread anti-semitic images and messaging through social media

Mayor Arreguin, speaking to the J Weekly: 

“There’s documentation showing things he has said that are very offensive and inappropriate and anti-Semitic.  And on that basis, I think it’s a very serious issue about whether this person should be in public office.”

Cheryl Davila, the Berkeley City Council representative from District 2 had also appointed Bazian as an emergency stand-in, in a move that prompted 3 Berkeley Rabbis to write to mayor Arreguin, expressing their deep concerns.   Davila's continued promotion of Bazian, a financial contributor to her campaign, shows her  abject disdain for the local Jewish community

Cheryl Davila is a regular at local and national anti-Israel events, and received financial support for her campaign from anti-Israel activists nationwide.

   

Berkeley City Council member Cheryl Davila  wearing T shirt in support of convicted Jew-killer Rasmeah Odeh

UPDATE: 

Hatem Bazian has circled the wagons and is attempting to orchestrate a response.

Hatem Bazian: The extremist member of Berkeley's Peace and Justice Commission

Its often quipped  "Two Jews, three opinions".   Not when it comes to Hatem Bazian, a man so extreme that the three leading congregational Rabbis in Berkeley, representing the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox movement co-signed a letter in opposition to his appointment  as an emergency stand-in for Berkeley Councilperson Cheryl Davila.  The latter stated, in part:

“Prof. Bazian has a history of encouraging and personally engaging in speech which is offensive, uncivil and encourages demonization of others, including many citizens of Berkeley”

In spite of the controversy and concern over Bazian's divisive and inflammatory rhetoric Davila has now appointed him to the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission.   Bazian, who once infamously called for an intifada in America is now on a commission tasked with advising the City Council and the School Board  "on issues of peace and social justice."  

Cheryl Davila is a regular participant in anti-Israel protests on campus, in the streets, and in front of the local Israeli consulate.

Hatem Bazian and anti-Israel activists across the nation donated to Davila's election campaign.  

Zaytuna College congratulated Bazian on his appointment.

The local Jewish community is understandably concerned about having a man who recently retweeted anti-Semitic caricatures tasked with advising the city on matters of social justice.

Berkeley City Councilperson Cheryl Davila nominates Hatem Bazian to be her Emergency Stand-in

In a discussion on helping children get through disasters, Fred Rogers related this story. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

The Berkeley City Council is currently in the process of nominating 'helpers"- emergency stand-ins  for the Council, in the event of catastrophe.  Berkeley City Council representative from District 2, Cheryl Davila has nominated  Hatem Bazian, a contributor to her election campaign, for this role.

Hatem Bazian's history of inflammatory, divisive rhetoric make him completely unsuited for this position.

Listen to Hatem Bazian 's own words. Hatem Bazian has called for an intifada- a violent uprising- in America. He attempted (and failed) to organize a blockade of the Israeli consulate in San Francisco.

He has promoted violence.  "The only language the slave master understands is the language of violence". He has promoted harassment of our elected officials "We need to translate our strength into the harassment of the political leadership." He has used social media to spread anti-Semitic memes.

Could Cheryl Davila have picked a person less likely to unify a community shattered by disaster?

CALL TO ACTION:

Tomorrow (July 24th, 2018) the Berkeley City Council will vote on whether or not to appoint anti-Semitic UC Berkeley Professor Hatem Bazian as a "Standby Officer" to replace one of the Councilors in case of emergency.

Please call and email the members listed below and urge them to vote against hate (sample message is below):

Mayor Jesse Arreguin
(510) 981-7100
mayor@CityofBerkeley.info

Linda Maio
(510) 981-7110
lmaio@CityofBerkeley.info

Ben Bartlett
(510) 981-7130
bbartlett@CityofBerkeley.info

Kate Harrison
(510) 981-7140
kharrison@CityofBerkeley.info

Sophie Hahn
(510) 981-7150
shahn@CityofBerkeley.info

Susan Wengraf
(510) 981-7160
swengraf@CityofBerkeley.info

Kriss Worthington
(510) 981-7170
kworthington@CityofBerkeley.info

Lori Droste
(510) 981-7180
ldroste@CityofBerkeley.info

Haneen Zoabi comes to town.

In a perfect world, Israeli MK Haneen Zoabi would be held up as an example of Israel's pluralistic and  democratic nature.  An Arab woman, educated in Israeli universities and elected to the Kenneset is surely a testimony to Israel's vibrant pluralism and vigorous democracy.

We don't live in a perfect world.

Instead, Zoabi  is crisscrossing the Bay area, spreading lies about the state she calls home, enabled by some of the most extremist groups in the Bay area.

A variety of vehemently anti-Israel groups have been sponsoring and promoting Zoabi's Bay area tour.   "Jewish" Voice for Peace is a sponsor and has freely promoted this open supporter of Hamas.

Zoabi has appeared at the Ramallah Institute, at Stanford, at  Berkeley City hall (invited by the equally extreme Cheryl Davila), at UC Berkeley and on KPFA, a local radio station.

Sue Fishkoff of the J weekly interviewed Zoabi.

“I’m willing to meet with and talk with anyone,” she said. But they’d better know what they’re going to hear from her, she added. “Anyone who is not anti-Zionist, who perceives himself as a left-wing Zionist, must recognize their complicity in the tragedy of the Palestinians. You are either anti-Zionist and realize the colonialist dimension of Israel as a Jewish state, or you have to take responsibility for the oppression of the Palestinians.”

The “progressive Zionist left” is misguided at best, she said. The point is not to make things better for the Palestinians, she said, but to dissolve the state itself and replace it either with two states — one secular, one Palestinian — or, ideally, one binational secular state with self-determination for both Jews and Palestinians.

She has been criticized in recent years for stating that Jews are not a people, and therefore do not need a state, in contrast to Palestinians. Reiterating that view to J., she said Jews outside Israel have no claim on that land and never did. ..."

Zoabi's Bay Area visit would have gone unchallenged, if not for the brave students of UC Berkeley, who conducted a brief, dignified silent protest  last night.  Wearing shirts that declared  "I am a Zionist" in Arabic, they held signs that exposed Zoabi's racist agenda in front of the auditorium, visibly flustering Hatem Bazian, the host of the evening.

Afterward they released this open letter to the Cal Chancellor, documenting Zoabi's lies, and the 

University structure that gave her a platform.

From Tikvah, the Zionist voice on campus:

We will not be silent as our identities are slandered through an official, academic platform supported by the university, which provides lecturers like Hatem Bazian the opportunity to do this over, and over and over again....We now call on ChancellorChristand the UC Berkeley Administration to take a definitive stance against anti-Semitism and to take immediate administrative action against Hatem Bazian for promoting said anti-Semitism and hosting a radical, offensive  and utterly dishonest speaker in an "academic event".  If no action is taken immediately, we will have proof  that our university does not care about academic , intellectual and moral dishonesty, and that it chooses to bury and forget the threats Jewish and Israeli students face on this campus.

We hope the Chancellor takes the right steps and finally acknowledges the deep rooted level and acceptance of anti-Semitism at UC Berkeley, and its never ending promotion by the same faculty member.  We will not back down and will continue to vocally oppose the indoctrination happening under the guise of academia, today and every day.

       

UC Berkeley's Hatem Bazian anti-semitic tweets

Hatem Bazian, a man who infamously called for an intifada in America has been using his twitter account to spread repulsive anti-Semitism

On July 31, 2017, Bazian,  a lecturer in Berkeley's Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies department. retweeted an anti-Semitic tweet accusing a “Zionist” of “apartheid, occupation, ethnic cleansing, genocide” and theft of “Palestinian land+resources+body-organs

One tweet  features a cartoon of a Jewish man, captioned: “I can now kill, rape, smuggle organs & steal the land of Palestinians.”

The other shows Kim Jong-Un, of North Korea,  wearing a kippah, saying he has just converted his nation to Judaism: “Donald Tlump: Now my nukes are legal & I can annex South Korea & you need to start paying me 34 billion a year in welfare.”

Hatem's anti-Semitism was exposed by Tikvah, the Zionist Voice at UC Berkeley.

On their webpage, Tikvah wrote:

Tikvah, the Zionist Voice at UC Berkeley, condemns every form of Anti-Semitism and expects that people be held accountable for their actions. Professor Hatem Bazian, a lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Ethnic Studies Department, has shown his true colors after retweeting a truly revolting, Anti-Semitic tweet shown below. It is unacceptable for a lecturer at a highly acclaimed and diverse university to be allowed to spew propaganda and discriminatory content, whether it is in the classroom or online. We are calling on the UC Berkeley to condemn Professor Bazian’s actions and hold him accountable for his Anti-Semitic behavior. We also expect a public apology and a pledge to attend sensitivity training by Professor Bazian.

News of Bazian's antisemitic tweet spread widely through the Jewish papers

UC Berkeley lecturer apologizes for anti-Semitic tweet

UC Professor Tweets Anti-Semitic Propaganda

Pro-BDS UC-Berkeley Professor Slammed for Antisemitic Tweet Accusing Jews of ‘Organ Theft’

After word of the blatant anti-Semitism spread, Hatem Bazian issued a tepid apology, admitting the cartoon was "wrong and offensive".

Coming from Bazian, a man with a long history of divisive, offensive rhetoric, the words were meaningless.

Hatem Bazian's Islamophobia Conference Sparsely attended.

Hot off his  Censoring Palestine event at UC Berkeley, which reportedly attracted any where from 8 to 25 participants, 

Poorly attended Censoring Palestine conference at Boalt hall, UC Berkeley

Hatem Bazian is at it again.

According to Cinnamon Stillwell and Rima Greene, reporting in CampusWatch , The University of California, Berkeley's recent Sixth Annual International Islamophobia Conference—organized by the Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project was also sparsely attended,  drawing anywhere from 20 -50 participants.

From the article in Campus Watch h/t Gary

"Islamophobia studies" is the latest addition to the academic pantheon of politicized, esoteric, and divisive "studies" whose purpose is to censor criticism of differing views by stigmatizing critics as racist or clinically insane. The University of California, Berkeley's recent Sixth Annual International Islamophobia Conference—organized by the Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project (IRDP)—was titled, "The State of the Islamophobia Studies Field." The fact that this "field" doesn't yet formally exist in the U.S. may explain why speakers the first day of the conference barely mentioned it. As in years past, the conference featured victimology, academic jargon, and anti-Western rhetoric....

While this year's conference may have failed to usher in the dawn of an officially recognized "Islamophobia studies," it wasn't for lack of effort. Soon after, IRDP announced the latest edition of its politicized bi-annual publication, the Islamophobia Studies Journal. Perhaps following UC Berkeley's lead, Georgetown University recently launched the Bridges Initiative, a project of the Saudi-funded Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding devoted to "protecting pluralism – ending Islamophobia."

The subject is all the rage in the field of Middle East studies and throughout academe, which is doing its utmost to silence critics of the Islamic supremacism, systemic social problems, and total chaos plaguing the region. If and when "Islamophobia studies" becomes a reality, we can't claim we didn't see it coming.

Read it all here

Students for Justice in Palestine: promoting hate on campus

September 23, 2014 has been proclaimed by Hatem Bazian as an "International day of Action" against Israel. Bazian,  who once infamously called for an "intifada" in America, was a founder of Students for Justice in Palestine, the group that will be spring boarding  the "Day of Action"



Students for Justice in Palestine, also known as SJP, or more popularly as Students for Just us in Palestine has a long history of threatening pro-Israel activists, shouting down free speech, and intimidating those who disagree with them. This year, they sport free legal protection for their rights, while they run roughshod over everyone elses

The comically named Center for Constitutional Rights, the Palestinian Solidarity Legal Support Group, and the National Lawyers Guild  have joined together to cover for their bad behavior.

Roz Rothstein, founder of the educational organization StandWithUs has documented  the hateful intolerance of SJP in the Times of Israel.

• In February 2014 SJP violated the free speech rights of two Israelis at a pro-Israel event at Cal Poly Pomona. It brought professional anti-Israel activists and students from other schools to shout the speakers down, preventing them from making their presentations and robbing audience members of the opportunity to hear Israeli perspectives on the conflict.
• When SJP brought divestment campaigns to the University of Michigan and other campuses, numerous Jewish students and members of student governments were subjected to threats, hate speech, and other forms of intimidation.
• At UC Irvine and San Francisco State University (SFSU), SJP disrupted Israel Independence Day celebrations. Its members attempted to shout down pro-Israel student speakers at SFSU, physically pushed people away from informational booths, and assaulted three Jewish students at Irvine.
• UCLA’s SJP chapter employed an especially sophisticated intimidation tactic, filing judicial complaints against two student senators who had gone on sponsored educational trips to Israel.
• Temple SJP is currently being investigated because a student associated with the group hit a pro-Israel student in the face during Welcome Week.
• SJP at Loyola University of Chicago is currently being investigated for harassing Hillel students and blocking their Birthright Israel informational table.

In all of these instances, SJP demonstrated its total disregard for freedom of speech, its eagerness to silence pro-Israel voices, and its desire to prevent uninformed students from hearing or seeing Israel’s side of the story.

No one expects September 23 to be any different.

Jewish Organizations Express Concern over Hatem Bazian's proposed day of hate against Israel

Hatem Bazian, the man who notoriously called for an intifada in America has used his facebook page to call for an International Day of Action against Israel on September 23, 2014.

Tammi Benjamin,co-founder of the AMCHA initiative and a fearless advocate for Jewish students on campus has expressed her concerns about Hatem’s proposal in an open letter to UC Berkeley Chancellor Dirks, writing on behalf of Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity (AEPi) ,Americans for Peace and Tolerance, Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law ,Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) ,Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) ,Hasbara Fellowships ,Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel ,National Conference on Jewish Affairs Proclaiming Justice to the Nations ,Scholars for Peace in the Middle East ,Simon Wiesenthal Center, StandWithUs, The Lawfare Project , and the Zionist Organization of America.

From her open letter
... In the wake of the Israel-Gaza conflict, global antisemitism has reached levels not seen since the Holocaust. Jews throughout the world are being targeted for threats, physical assaults and murder, and Jewish property for desecration and destruction. While we fully support academic freedom and students' freedom of expression, these types of demonstrations can result in antisemitic rhetoric and violent behavior, creating a hostile and unsafe environment for Jewish students. Just days ago, a Jewish student at Temple University was punched in the face and called "baby-killer, racist, Zionist pig" and "kike" as he stood next to a table run by the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

As you may be aware, the UC Berkeley SJP group, which was in fact founded by Dr. Bazian himself when he was a graduate student in 2001, has a long history of engaging in antisemitic behaviors targeting Jewish and pro-Israel students for harassment, intimidation, bullying and even assault. Dr. Bazian's call for students to engage in aggressive and potentially illegal actions against Israel and its campus supporters -- actions that include "civil disobedience" -- can only exacerbate the already hostile environment for pro-Israel Jewish students and create the conditions that could well lead to violence on your campus.

Moreover, Professor Bazian is promoting an academic boycott of Israel which calls for shutting down opportunities for students to study in Israel and severing all ties with Israeli universities and scholars -- a boycott which more than 250 university presidents, including yourself, have called a subversion of academic freedom, and which has been decried as antisemitic by government officials and Jewish leaders. Furthermore, we believe that it is highly inappropriate for Dr. Bazian, a faculty member at UC Berkeley, to incite students to engage in "civil disobedience", behavior which is potentially illegal and may lead to adverse consequences for the students and others.

We wanted to bring this to your attention immediately so you could monitor the behavior of SJP and other student organizations involved in the September 23 Day of Action, and ensure, through the use of campus police and administrative oversight, that behavior which violates university policy or the law will be swiftly and appropriately addressed, and that Jewish and pro-Israel students will not be harassed, intimidated, bullied or assaulted.

h/t  Our friend Gary at Fousesquawk

Extremist Hatem Bazian Declares "International Day of Action" against Israel

Anti-Israel activism on campus is not a grass-roots localized effort- rather it is carefully coordinated and organized by professional activists.  We saw this earlier this year when Max Samarov  exposed career activist Dalit Baum as the author of a campus BDS resolution at Loyola University  

On Tuesday, April 1st, Students for Justice in Palestine presented the Loyola student government with an anti-Israel divestment resolution. But what they neglected to mention was that they didn’t write the legislation themselves. It turned out that the real author was Dalit Baum, a major leader in the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. Baum is not a student or faculty member of Loyola or any North American university. She is a paid operative working to co-opt student governments into following the BDS Movement’s malicious, anti-Israel agenda. And if she is writing resolutions for one school, it is likely that she is writing them for others as well.

We are seeing it again.  University lecturer Hatem Bazian, who once infamously called for an “Intifada” in America has begun promoting an anti- Israel agenda for the coming school year.  A professional agitator,  not a student representatives is again setting the agenda, and has declared an  “International Day of Action” against Israel on Sept. 23, 2014.

 Via Truth revolt.

University of California at Berkeley professor and founder of the national student group “Students for Justice in Palestine” (SJP) Hatem Bazian announced an “International Day of Action” to call for a complete academic and cultural boycott of Israel on September 23^rd- the Eve before the Jewish New Year. 

The anti-Semitic nature of the day included calls for “No joint research or conferences with Israeli Institutions, No to University Presidents' Visits to Israel, No Campus Police Training or Cooperation with Israeli Security” in addition to demanding the elimination of all study abroad programs in Israel. The effort is to prevent all academic interaction with the Jewish state and to limit people’s ability to interact with Israel and Israelis.

The attempt to isolate Israel extends to a boycott of Jewish and Israeli on-campus organizations as well. Professor Bazian has also commanded his group to demand “No to University Coordination and Strategizing with the ADL, JCRC, AJC, Stand With US, ZOA, Israeli Consulate to Limit Students Pro-Palestine Constitutionally Protected Activities.”

Lets hope our students are prepared for this latest round of anti-Israel activity

Hatem Bazian forces his class to tweet about "Islamophobia"

 “I’ve been told by one of my professors I will be required, as part of my grade, to start a Twitter account and tweet weekly on Islamophobia. I can’t help but feel this is unethical. This is his agenda not mine.”

Many who have experience with Hatem Bazian believe he has repeatedly crossed the line from academic freedom to downright propagandizing and indoctrination. In the past,  Hatem has notoriously called for an "Intifada in America" and has been reported to have made antisemitic comments at an SJP rally at UC Berkeley in 2002. "Take a look at the type of names on the buildings around campus -- Haas, Zellerbach -- and decide who controls this university."

From Tarek Fatah, published in the Toronto Sun, who received a panicked message from a student enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley:

He wrote: “I’ve been told by one of my professors I will be required, as part of my grade, to start a Twitter account and tweet weekly on Islamophobia. I can’t help but feel this is unethical. This is his agenda not mine.”

The professor conducting this exercise was Hatem Bazian as part of a course titled, “Asian American Studies 132AC: Islamophobia”.

When I asked him to elaborate on his concerns the student wrote: “There are 100 students in the class, all of us forced to create individual Twitter accounts. I’m not wholly clear on what our final project is yet (I find it very interesting that he excludes both the Twitter account requirement AND the final project from his official syllabus), but we have to meet with a group in San Francisco, and our class will be surveying people of color on the impact of some ads put out by (anti-Sharia blogger) Pamela Gellar. Now I’m no Pamela Gellar fan, I think she’s nuts, but I feel ... between the Twitter stuff and the final project he’s basically using us as unpaid labor to work on his agenda.”

I wrote to Prof. Bazian, who co-founded “Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)” at Berkeley, asking why he was using his students to pursue what appeared to me to be a political exercise meant to propagate a specific message to the Twitterverse.

Bazian replied, without referring to Islamophobia:

“My course is designated as an American culture community engagement scholarship class … Students are asked to send at least one posting per week on something related to the course content, be it from the actual reading or anything they read or came across.”

When I asked him why all the tweets by his students so far are about Islamophobia, he replied: “The class is titled De-Constructing Islamophobia and the History of Otherness … (Students) are asked to post based on … examining Islamophobia through looking at earlier historical examples.”

The fact remains Prof. Bazian appears to be using his position of authority to make 100 students — mostly non-Muslims — tweet about Muslim victimhood in America, irrespective of how it’s defined or whether it exists.

No student I have seen on Twitter has yet posted a tweet saying Islamophobia is a myth, nor has any student challenged the validity of the term.

Students at DeAnza College in Cupertino were treated to a extra large helping of Bazian-speak last night. Two professors offered their students extra credit as well as a free dinner in an effort to get them to attend the evening talk. The event, originally scheduled from 6:00pm until 8:30pm, was curtailed by a half hour after Israel-supporters in the audience challenged Bazian by providing historical context for the conflict. Bazian chose to break up the event prematurely, rather than allow an alternate perspective.

A full report will be posted when its available.

KQED capitulates to Bullies

During Friday's morning pledge drive, local radio station KQED offered the home carbonation system, Sodastream, as a thank you gift for subscribers.

The BDS cru saw blood.

Via social media, an organized campaign began to bully KQEd into capitulating to their demands. While the pro Israel community were busy at their day jobs, the "Don't they have a life?" contingent began the process of pressuring the station.

Here's the quick and dirty anatomy of the attack.

Anti-Israel agitprop site Electronic Intifada issued a call to arms.

Dr Hatem Bazian, who infamously called for an intifada in America  encouraged people to call KQED.

 Eyad Kishawi, of the extremist Al Awda movement also jumped on the bandwagon

Soon, others were spamming the KQED Twitter feed, 

as well as their facebook page

Rather than do independent research, KQED simply capitulated to the bullies, tweeting to anger management poster child Deppen Webber   "Controversy surrounding Sodastream would undermine our unbiased message"

Interestingly, according to the Electronic Intifada  the station had  been "unaware" of the controversy surrounding Sodastream until this incident.  What does that say about the alleged "momentum" of this "movement"?  After years of letter writing, emailing, "twitter storms", "thunderclaps" "culture jamming", protests and flash mobs,  the BDS 'holes had not yet succeeded in propagandizing a Bay Area progressive radio station

If only KQED had taken the time to really examine this issue.

AMP Muni Apartheid Ads. Press Conference Fail

Its not about the ads.  It never was.  The ads serve primarily as a convenient catalyst for garnering publicity.  With over 90,000 dead in Syria, over a million refugees from the civil war and no end in sight,  its very important to have these continuous reminders that after all, its all Israel's fault. Even if its not.   It was inconceivable that Hatem Bazien and his friends from American Muslims for Palestine would plunk down the money for advertisements without a press conference, to pat themselves on the back and roil about their eternal victim hood.  They did not disappoint.

Photos from the American Muslims for Palestine Press Conference earlier this week from their Facebook page

Lynn Gottleib and Hassan Fouda at American Muslims for Palestine Press Conference

Hassan Fouda is a regular at Bay area Anti-Israel events.  Sometimes he likes to pretend he's a Jew.

Anti-Israel activist Hassan Fouda posing as a Jew

Hassam wasn't needed to Jew-wash this time. His friends from Jewish Voice for Peace happily provided that service

Lynn Gottleib, Cecilie Surasky, Hatem Bazian and Hassan Fouda at AMP press conference

Partners in Solidarity: JVP forms alliances with some of the most extremist anti-Israel groups in the area.

Ultimately,  only the San Francisco Examiner  ran the story, but  they didn't give the extremists quite the publicity they craved, stating  "The “apartheid” campaign is the latest in a series of messages on Muni vehicles related to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East."  Yep.  That's "apartheid"  in parentheses.  The Examiner article was followed by an op-ed written by  Rev. Dr. Kenneth Meshoe, a member of the South African Parliament,  president of the African Christian Democratic Party and a black South African who lived under apartheid.

Dr. Meshoe wrote:

....In my view, Israel cannot be compared to apartheid in South Africa. Those who make the accusation expose their ignorance of what apartheid really is.

Apartheid was a legal system of segregation and oppression based on skin color, with a very small white minority dominating over the vast majority of people of color....

 I believe that it is slanderous and deceptive for Israel’s self-defense measures against the terrorists’ campaign of suicide bombing, rocket attacks and other acts of terrorism that have occurred, and continue to occur, to be labeled as apartheid. I am shocked by the claim that the free, diverse, democratic state of Israel practices apartheid. This ridiculous accusation trivializes the word apartheid, minimizing and belittling the magnitude of the racism and suffering endured by South Africans of color.

I urge all people, young people in particular, to visit Israel and learn the facts for themselves so that they can confidently refute these false allegations against Israel. The misapplication of the term apartheid makes a mockery of a grievous injustice and threatens to undermine the true meaning of the term.

 In my view, Israel is a model of democracy, inclusion and pluralism that can be emulated by many nations, particularly in the Middle East.

MUNI Buses: The latest battleground for the war in the Middle East?

The war in the Middle east has moved to our MUNI buses, with the arrival of yet another series of deeply disturbing ads, this time sponsored by the American Muslims for Palestine. A consortium of local Jewish community organizations have joined together to condemn anti-Israel ads, in much the same manner as they did several months ago, to condemn ads that demeaned Islam. While acknowledging the constitutionally protected right of these organizations to run political ads, the statement expresses its concern regarding their polarizing and divisive nature.


The joint Statement from the Jewish Community Relations Council, The Anti-­Defamation League, and the American Jewish Committee reads:

Today, another misleading advertisement appeared in San Francisco targeting one segment of our community in an attempt to sow division in our city.

The Bay Area’s organized Jewish community strongly condemns the ad’s deceitful claim that Israel is an apartheid state. Placed by American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), the ad is morally reprehensible as it employs inflammatory rhetoric designed to delegitimize Israel’s very existence. The ad’s false claims diminish the suffering of the millions of people who were truly subjected to apartheid. The term “apartheid” describes the systematic oppression of the racial majority population by South Africa’s minority through comprehensive racial discrimination.

In sharp contrast to Apartheid South Africa, Israel is a diverse democratic country that affords equal political and civil rights to all its citizens.We hope for a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians and an end to the suffering on both sides.

In stark contrast, AMP’s apartheid rhetoric is profoundly misleading, and harms good faith efforts toward a peaceful resolution based on two states for two people.

Locally, the campaign promotes polarization and division among San Franciscans, who pride themselves on fostering Strong inter-­ethnic and inter-­religious relations.

The Jewish Community has long stated our concern that the repeated appearance of offensive anti-­Israel and anti-­Muslim ads is making our Public transit system a battleground for the Israeli-­Palestinian conflict. While protected by the First Amendment, extremist language directed at any group has no place in our city. We call upon all civic, ethnic and religious leaders who oppose bigoted lies and demonization to exercise their constitutional rights by condemning these inflammatory advertisements.

************
In the Orwellian world of the AMP, the JCRC statement, expressing its profound disappointment that our public transit system is being used in this manner has been labelled an "attack", an "attempt to stiffle open debate" and a "smear tactic used to shut down free speech". In classic AMP manner, the laundry list of  imagined slights is followed by a plea for donations.

The response of the American Muslims for Palestine is so far divorced from reality, I can't help but wonder if they even read the JCRC statement.  Perhaps Hatem needs  to work on his reading comprehension- the statement at no point  characterizes his efforts as "anti-Semitic", and his straw man arguments simply belie the failure of his organization to justify their actions.

...AMP has come under renewed attack by the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Relations Council, which are attempting to stifle open debate on these important issues by labeling any public critique of Israel as hateful and anti-Semitic.

“The attempt to characterize our efforts as anti-Semitic is a time-worn smear tactic used by pro-Israel organizations to shut down free speech. It is no more anti-Semitic to critique Israeli policies than it is Islamophobic to criticize Iran,” Dr. Bazian said.

AMP considers Jewish participation in our work to play an essential role in advocating for a better future for all the people of the Middle East. AMP has worked with such organizations as: Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews for Justice in Palestine, Jews for the Palestinian Right of Return and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. AMP routinely features Jewish speakers at its conferences and lectures.

While Israel denies its policies constitute apartheid, Tutu has said, “I’ve been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa.”

The Jewish Voice for Peace has come out strongly in support of AMP and against attempts to stifle constitutionally protected political speech.

"Jewish Voice for Peace supports SF bus campaign criticizing Israeli human rights violations, condemns local Jewish Community Relation Council’s attempt to muzzle political speech."

"AMP remains determined to bring the truth to the American people, despite the scurrilous and false attacks by Zionist groups," said Kristin Szremski, AMP director of media and communications. "The fact the JCRC and the ADL are attacking us show that our efforts to educate the public are working and we remain more committed than ever to our mission."

AMP needs your support to continue its work. Help us bring the truth about Palestine to the American public. Donate now.   ********* To Kristin Szremski and to Hatem Bazian :  A campaign based on falsehood rests on a very shaky foundation. If your efforts are working so well, why do you feel the need to  lie, not only to the public, but to your core constituency?

American Muslims for Palestine Declare a Rather Premature Victory

To the extremist American Muslims for Palestine, the 25 ads in Metro North stations in New York and Connecticut were little more than a cheap and cynical publicity stunt.  They've made that perfectly clear with an email they sent out today, proclaiming their 2 day old campaign a "huge success":.

Keep the momentum going!AMP’s new ad campaign is getting nationwide, and even international attention! And the term ‘Israeli Apartheid’ has made it into mainstream media reports – from ABC, CBS and NBC to Haaretz. The ad will be posted at 25 stations on the Metro North line in New York and Connecticut for four weeks. It's purpose is to raise awareness about the occupation and Israel's apartheid policies, as well as to reclaim our narrative from those who have been posting virulently anti-Arab and anti-Muslim ads. AMP's ad campaign is slated for several cities throughout the country and may next appear on buses in San Francisco. More than a dozen media outlets attended our press conference in NYC on Tuesday to kick off the campaign! 

 The interest  shows the American public is ready to accept the Palestinian narrative! 

No. I don't think so.

At least one of those media outlets, the New York Daily News saw right through the incendiary rhetoric and reported:

 Why is this day different from all other days? Because a pro-Palestinian group picked the first day of Passover to unveil a button-pushing new ad campaign that compares Israel to racist South Africa.The ads, which demand “End Apartheid Now! Stop U.S. Aid to Israel,” are being plastered at 25 Metro North train stations for the next four weeks. The head of American Muslims for Palestine insisted Tuesday they didn’t time the unveiling of the ads to coincide with the Jewish holiday, which celebrates freedom.“We timed the release of our ads with President Obama’s visit to the Middle East,” said Dr. Hatem Bazian. Obama visited Israel last week.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) issued the following statement on the anti-Israel ads

We are deeply disturbed that American Muslims for Palestine is undertaking a billboard campaign that falsely accuses Israel of "apartheid." Their ad campaign ignores the complicated nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and is part of the campaign to delegitimize and demonize the Jewish state.

It shows a profound lack of sensitivity that they chose the first day of the Jewish holiday of Passover to announce this malicious and false ad campaign.

And the American Muslims for Palestine responded:

We can’t let these Zionists and Islamophobes win! Help AMP take this ad campaign to cities across the nation.

The ADL has released a background paper on the American Muslims for Palestine.  The organization has roots in the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), an anti-Semitic group that served as the main propaganda arm for Hamas in the United States until it was dissolved in 2004. Since its creation in 2005, AMP continues to work closely with some former IAP leaders who currently hold positions as AMP board members.

Read the paper here.  This is what we are facing.  And decide now how your community will react when this special brand of AMP hate shows up in your neighborhood.